7. Is the presence of hepatitis B DNA associated with increased risk of liver cancer?

And the same investigators looked at the other
marker of an active virus, which is the hepatitis B virus DNA
level. People were four times more likely to have
liver cancer if the DNA was detectable at a high level. In this
particular study, it was used at 10 to the fifth by a particular
assay. So this therefore suggests, and this is only
a suggestion, that maybe we can prevent the long-term risk of liver
cancer if we can have a sustained suppression of the HBV DNA. Now,
that’s not been proven, this is only a supposition because of these
kinds of data. More and more, as we talk about treatment and we look
at what’s the endpoint- we want to have a sustained suppression of the
HBV DNA.